On Wednesday, January 4th, President Barack H. Obama said, “The American people deserve to have qualified public servants fighting for them every day … We can’t wait to act to strengthen the economy and restore security for our middle class and those trying to get in it, and that’s why I am proud to appoint these fine individuals to get to work for the American people.” With that statement, Obama announced recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The problem is that the U.S. Senate was not in recess, and had in fact passed a two-month extension of the payroll-tax holiday during period that the President claimed was a Senatorial recess. Therefore, he no constitutional authority to make any recess appointments. Obama trampled over the “separations of powers” and bypassed the U.S. Senate’s “advice and consent” regarding these appointments creating a constitutional crisis and another NLRB quagmire.

Jonathan Williams, Director of Tax & Fiscal Policy ALEC, offers state level solutions. He advises states to have a right to work status, which leads to job growth. States must also prioritize their budgets and reduce marginal tax rates.

In his campaign speech in Kansas last week, President Obama used a company called Marvin Windows and Doors in Minnesota as an example of a responsible business. Apparently when the recession hit, Marvin Windows and Doors reduced salaries and benefits rather than fire any employees.

- Marvin Windows and Doors is a family-owned, privately-held company and has no obligations to shareholders.

- Marvin Windows and Doors apparently doesn’t have any unions. Thus:

When housing starts – and orders for new windows and doors – plummeted, management cut salaries by 5 percent, put hourly workers on 32-hour weeks, stopped paying tuition reimbursement, stopped allowing employees to cash in unused vacation days, and encouraged them to take unpaid leaves. Through attrition, the workforce is 14 percent smaller than at its housing-boom peak. The only things the company hasn’t cut are jobs and health insurance benefits. There’s not a hint in the Times article of any of these changes being voted on or negotiated with anyone – all appear to have been the owners’ unilateral decisions.

So the President’s sterling example of good corporate citizenship was only possible by enacting workplace policies that would be inconceivable in a union shop.

(Voegeli also points out that Obama is praising an approach that his own administration didn’t use with GM and Chrysler.)

President of National Right to Work Committee, Mark Mix, tells us how he really feels about the candidate for President as well as how the other candidates stack up when it comes to whether or not they support union mandates. Mix also talks about the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its lawsuit against Boeing for building a plant in North Charleston, SC.

Two of the three solar companies profiled earlier, GE and Abound, already produce or plan to make Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) thin film photovoltaics (PV). CdTe is a compound formed from Cadmium and Tellurium. While Tellurium is rare, Cadmium is a highly toxic human carcinogen. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the compound CdTe is also a carcinogen. Depending on the level of exposure, health effects range from kidney damage, fragile bones, lung damage, and death.

Because the U.S. doesn’t mine these much of these elements here, U.S. manufacturers look elsewhere. Sadly, individual tragedy in China’s “cancer villages” reveals the dirty secret of “clean energy.”

A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company.All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.

America became the wealthiest country because for most of our history we have followed the basic principles of economic freedom: property rights, freedom to trade internationally, minimal governmental regulation of business, sound money, relatively low taxes, the rule of law, entrepreneurship, freedom to fail, and voluntary exchange.

The success of economic freedom in increasing human prosperity, extending our life spans and improving the quality of our lives in countless ways is the most extraordinary global story of the past 200 years.

And…

So why is our economy barely growing and unemployment stuck at over 9%? I believe the answer is very simple: Economic freedom is declining in the U.S.

3. Regulatory reform (including a mandatory sunset provision.) “While some regulations create important safeguards for public health and the environment, far too many simply protect existing business interests and discourage entrepreneurship.”

There’s a big difference between “pro-business” and “pro-free market.” And the Tea Party – from its inception – has been “pro-free market.” In fact, one of the founding principles that brought together the original Tea Partiers was a rejection of the crony capitalism of the bailouts.

The anti-bailout, anti-incentive, anti-”public-private partnership,” anti-stimulus factions are ascendant in both parties, and in the Republican Party, that sentiment is dominant.

Entrenched business that rely on favoritism, incentives, neo-protectionism and handouts, be wary.

Entrepreneurs trying to break into protected and over-regulated markets, know that the cause of free markets is one of the hottest political issues of the day.

Shadowbosses Blog

Praise

Rand Paul: "well-researched, thoroughly documented, and enlightening”Donald Rumsfeld: “a story that needed to be told, and Factor tells it with force.”Steve Forbes: “a must read for anyone wanting to save our nation.”